Methods and apparatus for sending content to a media player

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for sending content to a media player. In general, a user of the disclosed system consumes a plurality of media content (e.g., audio content, visual content, audiovisual content, etc.) distributed from a media server. The content preferably include advertising content and non-advertising content. Some or all of the content is selected by the system based on the user&#39;s specific requests, profile, preferences, and/or feedback, in conjunction with the profiles, preferences, requests, and feedback of other users, (e.g. using social media, social matching and/or collaborative filtering techniques). Preferably, the feedback includes statistical data indicative of partial experiences (e.g., user listened to 50%) of the content by one or more media consumers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/284,540, filed May 22, 2014 which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 11/836,766 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,752,086), filedAug. 9, 2007, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/821,898, filed Aug. 9, 2006, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF DISCLOSURE

The present system relates in general to media distribution and morespecifically to methods and apparatus for sending content to a mediaplayer.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

During the past decade or more, there has been an explosion ofmultimedia sources available via the Internet, satellite, wireless,cellular and other means of communication. All of these means ofcommunication provide various content that is so voluminous thatselection of any meaningful segments for an end user to listen to and/orview during their busy day is becoming a nearly impossible task.

Prior art on content delivery and social matching of content to the enduser's preferences has been less than successful especially for the busycommuter who would like to download popular segments to a mobile devicefor listening or viewing during their commute to and from work. Theseare some systems using various methods of delivering media content, butthese systems either lack the selection mechanism of the present system.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present system selects and delivers personalized multimedia contentto a user's multimedia device (e.g., computer or mobile device).Multimedia content includes any audio and/or visual content. The contentcan be selected from the system's servers and/or from external sources.The content is selected by the system based on the user's specificrequests, profile, preferences, and/or feedback, in conjunction with theprofiles, preferences, requests, and feedback of other users, (e.g.using social media, social matching and/or collaborative filteringtechniques). Preferably, the feedback includes statistical dataindicative of partial experiences (e.g., user listened to 50%) of thecontent by one or more media consumers.

The system allows an end user to have a single network source forpersonalized podcasts, news, sports, comedy, pop-culture, music,technology, financial information, entertainment, music, television,movies and more that is delivered to the end user through a computer ormobile device. This limits the need to search through thousands ofmultimedia feeds and published sources to find the information that theend user desires as the system does that work for the user.

As a result, the user spends more time enjoying the content while thesystem selects the end user's media content based on the user's feedbackon content segments listened to and/or watched. Moreover, whether acontent provider is an independent author or well-known publisher, thepresent system helps both to monetize the provider's content and todeliver system content to individual end users that are interested inthe provider's content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of an example communicationssystem.

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram showing one example of acomputing device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing one example of a system for deliveringcontent to a media player.

FIG. 4 is block diagram of an example system for delivering content to amedia player.

FIG. 5 is block diagram illustrating an example of with five usersinteracting with the system.

FIG. 6 is block diagram illustrating an example for charging advertisersand paying content providers.

FIG. 7 is block diagram illustrating an example of a group of userssharing content with each other.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

A system and method for creating a content management and socialmatching network that selects the appropriate content in audio and/orvisual format based on a user's profile, demographics, preferences,requests, and/or other feedback events is disclosed. The System deliversthat the selected content via the internet, satellite, digital radiotransmission, cell phone, or any other wired or wireless digitalcommunication method to a PC application, web interface, and/or aportable device, via streaming media or download. In some embodiments,the content is downloaded to a PC for subsequent loading onto a portabledevice for later playback.

In one embodiment, the system addresses the problem of weeding throughthe thousands of multimedia sources with their extensive content to finddesired content for a particular end user by utilizing various feedbackevents and collaborative filtering to select appropriate content for agiven end user and then delivering the selected content via streaming ordownloading over the internet to the end user's PC or mobile device forplayback at the end user's convenience.

The system may also include the ability to acquire content from manydifferent content providers. A content provider (e.g. publisher, author,individual, etc.) inputs their content to a provider network(hereinafter “network”) of the present invention. The content is“tagged” with relevant data, such as keywords that describe the source,author, topics of content segment, and any other relevant details aboutthis segment. These keywords are specified by the author, publisher, anetwork administrator, or from a speech-to-text converter that indexesthe audio file for keywords, or any combination thereof. In addition,end users are able to input keywords that they think are relevant forthat content segment. The data associated with the segment may alsoinclude details about the media file (e.g., format, length, duration,bit rate, etc.), as well as how the content interrelates to othercontent and users.

Various methods are provided to allow users to easily enter keywords,such as an interactive web page or application that is accessible from aPC or wireless mobile devices. Optionally, the keywords are extrapolatedto include synonyms or related keywords. For example, the keyword BillGates may be extrapolated to include “Microsoft.”

Content may also be aggregated from external sources by a web crawler,search tool, or a content feed standard, such as Real Simple Syndication(hereinafter “RSS”) or similar method/protocol. Where legal according tocopyright law, the system facilitates the download of podcasts or otheraudio segments available on the Internet (and allowed by the owners)without a content provider's direct intervention on behalf of eachsegment. Keywords may be discerned from the RSS feed (or similar system)as well as by the methods described above. The system allows for bothshort and long audio segments.

Content may be uploaded to the network in a variety of ways such as butnot limited to those below:

1. Audio file upload via web interface or application.

2. Audio file emailed to network in a pre-defined format.

3. Entered into the system manually by a network administrator.

4. Via PC or device microphone or other direct voice input.

5. Via telephone, or other direct voice input.

6. Via a wireless communication via satellite.

7. Via cellular towers for cellular phones having streaming audio andvideo.

Content providers may set various optional features related toindividual content segments or to all content they upload, such as:

1. Content is indicated such that it must follow another segment. Forexample chapters in a book often only make sense in linear format.Therefore each segment is marked as 1/X such that a segment may only beplayed if the previous segment in the list had already been played. Thisoption may be at the discretion of the author/content provider.

2. Content is made available only to certain users or groups of users

3. Content is made available to users with specified demographics orpsychographics, location, preferences, etc. For example, a contentprovider indicates that a segment should only be played to people of aspecific age group, living in a certain part of the country, who areinterested in a certain subject, etc.

4. Content is made available at certain times of the day or for aspecified date range.

5. Content is made available for a certain number of impressions. Forexample, if a user views or listens to some or all of a segment thatwould be one “impression.”

6. Content is indicated with a language so that it was matched only tousers who have chosen to accept content in that language.

7. Content Providers are able to choose the economic model for thiscontent, such as: a. Deliver to all users; b Deliver only to paidsubscribers; c. Deliver on a pay-per-use basis.

8. Content providers may be required to specify any profane languageincluded in the content or indicate a rating of the content based on apre-determined rating system for profanity. Such content may only bedelivered to users who have selected to allow for such content.

9. Content Providers may be allowed to upload multiple versions of thesame piece of content, for example, with a different lead-in ordifferent commentary that appeals to different demographics. In manycases, only one of the versions is delivered to a particular user.Additional example options available to the content providers include:a. The Provider monitors the performance of each segment and candeactivate or modify any of the versions; b. The Provider specifieswhich versions are delivered to different demographics. For example, oneversion has a younger person reading the content for a youngerdemographic; c. The Provider selects an “auto-optimize” setting whichdetermines through statistical analysis which segment is played based ontheir relative performance or which segment is played to which type ofuser for best response; This service is free or available for a charge.

An interface or application may be provided to allow users to modifytheir content such as basic-to-advanced multimedia editing as follows:

1. The system may allow a user to trim content, normalize audio spikes,cut out segments, splice in audio effects from a library, etc.

2. Audio content may be broken up into small logical discrete segmentsthat make sense on their own. However, much of the content that iscurrently created by publishers and podcasters alike is longer formatcontent that covers multiple topics. Therefore, this system helps acontent provider easily “cut” a large file into smaller files or simplydenote the breaks in the longer content. For example, if a user hascreated a one-hour podcast, they indicate the break points within thathour of the various independent subjects. The system then either marksthose places or separates the larger file into smaller independentfiles, which may then be delivered independently.

Content Providers may specify support content, such as genericintroductions or tail-plugs for their content. The system may then playthose segments at the beginning and/or end of the one or more segments.The system may choose when to play these support files to create thebest listening experience possible, such as play an introduction pieceonly the first time content by a particular provider is played within aparticular amount of time.

An interface or application may be provided for Content Providers tomanage and monitor their content, such as but not limited to thefollowing:

1. View each segment and see how many people have experienced thatcontent.

2. View the overall feedback of their content.

3. View the feedback of different user groups, demographics,psychographics, geographic location, etc. For example, a ContentProvider may view feedback on content segments from a specific age groupor demographic.

4. View the feedback/impressions over time.

5. View the feedback relative to similar content from other ContentProviders.

6. Deactivate segments or modify any available options.

An interface or application may be provided for Content Providers tomanage their income from advertisements and/or subscription revenue,such as have their income transferred to a bank account or otherfinancial institution, online payment system (e.g. PayPal), paid bycheck, etc. Some or all Content Providers may be required to pay a feeto be able to upload content. This may be on a subscription basis (e.g.,monthly or yearly) or it may be a per-upload, per-download, or similar,fee.

Because users are allowed to input content, the network benefits fromsome monitoring and regulation to enhance quality. Certain standards maybe met to approve content before going into the network or remove/limitcontent already in the network. Systems may be put in place to allowthis monitoring and regulation by any combination of networkadministrators, outside partners, selected peer-review users or groups,or general users. These individuals and/or groups may then beresponsible for monitoring the inputted content.

Revenue may be generated through a combination of advertising,subscription fee, and ala carte purchases. There may be varyingsubscriptions for different levels of “premium” content or for access tocertain content providers. There may also be an ala carte method wherebyusers pay to access certain content, and revenue may be shared with thecontent providers.

Content Selection

Content may be selected for a given user based on information about himor her (hereafter “him”), including such things as a profile,demographics, geographic location, preferences, specific requests, thecollection of feedback on other segments (“feedback events”) or anyother suitable method to discern the specific interests of a user. Aprofile (e.g., user profile, ad profile, content profile, etc.) mayinclude any suitable data associated with the associated object (e.g.,user, ad, content etc.) Profile data may be entered manually (e.g., theuser selects keywords) and/or automatically (e.g., the user listens tomost of an audio file about cars). A user's profile may also be used inconjunction with the profiles of similar users to select content that auser is most likely to enjoy (e.g. social matching).

A method is provided for users to create an initial profile byindicating key demographic and preference details. This profile may becreated through an input from a web interface, a PC or mobileapplication, or via a telephone call. This profile setup is notrequired, but it helps the system initially determine what content tosend to a given user. A method is also provided for users to givefeedback on the segments they experience.

One piece of content reviewed and rated higher by one type of person andyet is rated lower by another type of person may still be fed to peoplewhose profile were similar to the user who liked it. For example, asegment on “Star Trek” is disliked by the masses (and therefore notselected for those users) but adored by people who like the keyword“Star Trek” and other similar content. Therefore the “Star Trek” segmentis selected for those users. In other words, content has an overallpopularity value but it is also matched to users based on the popularityof that segment as reviewed by people of a similar profile.

Personal Content Popularity

The user may specify as broad or as narrow of a content theme/topic toexperience similar to how a user tunes to a specific radio station forspecific type of information (e.g. news or sports). However, in thissystem, the “channels” may be very broad or very narrow depending on theuser's interests. For example, a user may broadly specify “business” or“Brad Pit, Angelina Jolie, pop culture, and baby.” Those keywords maythen be fed to the system through a user-input method, which includesbut is not limited to hardware buttons, software buttons, multiplechoice menus, categories, text entry or voice input. The user may alsochoose to enter no topic criterion in which case the system may selectthe content segment in the network from all available topics based onthat person's profile. Subsequent segments are the next segment on atopic. Yet another scenario is that the next segment selected would thenext best segment for that user that is on a similar topic or sharessimilar keywords to the previous segment, thereby giving a contiguousexperience.

A combination of the following may be used to rank the segments in thenetwork for a particular user. Weighting may be determined based onstatistical modeling and testing (e.g., regression analysis) and refinedbased on customer feedback and improvements of the algorithms asfollows:

1. Any specific parameters (e.g. keywords, topics, etc.) this user hasrequested such as a particular topic to “lock in.” The user could choosevery specifically (e.g. “Bill Gates, Microsoft, monopoly lawsuit”) orbroadly (e.g. “news”). The user has the option to select no parameters.The user may be given popular content as determined by other people witha similar profile. A similar profile may be determined as profiles ofpeople who have liked content or topics that the user has liked (andalso possibly disliked content or topics that he has disliked). Like anddislike may be based on how much of a particular piece of media the userchooses to experience. For example, a user who listens to 15 seconds ofa one minute advertisement (25%) may be categorized as liking thatadvertisement less than a user who listens to the same advertisement for45 seconds (75%). These amounts may be recorded during playback and/ordetermined by click data (e.g., user presses skip or stop duringplayback).

2. Another metric to measure a segment is content velocity. The speed atwhich a segment is growing or decreasing in popularity (e.g., feedbackover time as opposed to total feedback for that segment) may be used togive weight to the segment. Therefore, content that is increasingrapidly in popularity may be selected more preferentially over contentthat may rank higher but is not increasing in popularity as much.

3. Content “Karma” is another factor. New content (not very widelyreviewed yet) gets the “karma” or starting ranking that is related toprevious content by that content provider in the network system.Therefore, previous popularity of segments helps or hurts the startingpoint of new content by that same source in the network system. Inaddition, Karma is often related to the topic or profile. For example, auser who has posted content on “gardening” that is reviewed well by acertain type of person, may get a good starting ranking for “gardening”with that type of person. However, that user may get a low startingreview for people outside that profile type, who are not interested inthat subject.

4. Distribution limitations are also feasible with the present system.Content providers may specify limitations for content as to who canreceive it, such as geographic location, demographic details, language,profile types, or any other determining factor. In addition, contentproviders may temporally limit the content by specifying expirationdate, specific dates or times of the day to be played, etc. Segments maynot be selected for a particular user if that user does not meet therequirements of these settings.

5. Filter preferences are also another feature of the present system. Ifa user has filter preferences set up, then any segments, which conflictwith those filter preferences, are preferably not selected. For example,filter preferences may be used to filter out content with swear words,certain content ratings, content with specific keywords, and/or contentby certain authors.

6. Content relationship to other content may also be a factor in contentselection. If a segment is the first segment in a related series e.g.,(by the same author), then the other segments in the series may beselected in their relative order. For example, a file that is 1 of X maybe given preference over a file that is 2 of X It is an option for auser to mandate that a previous segment is played before the nextsegment is played so that content is delivered in a useful (orpredetermined) order. However this does not necessarily mean thatbecause file 1 is played first that file 2 is played if file 2 does notmeet the selection criterion for this user. Content relationship doesnot have to be for just content by the same author or in the sameseries. For example, a content provider discussing a Presidential speechmight specify that his segment is to follow either another specificsegment or any segment with certain keywords. This allows for contentthat makes sense only in connection to another piece when played in aproper sequence so, for example, one piece is not played unless anotherpiece is played first.

7. Groups (and buddy lists) are effective methods for improving socialmatching, whereby the collective inputs of trusted groups affects theexperience of individuals. The users are given the opportunity tocreate, join, subscribe to, or otherwise participate in various groups.Content reviews by members of the groups may affect the selection ofcontent for a user of that group. For example, a user may create a groupwith friends. If one friend reviews certain content well, it may begiven preference to be selected for the other members in the group.Preference may mean that the content receives a higher priority. Thismay be a function of the selection logic or a user-specified selectionas to how to handle group content. These groups are often collaborative,in which case some or all of the members of the group may affect theselection. Or, the segments reviewed in a group may be made by a selectfew, but delivered to many. For example, someone subscribes to BillGates' group and is fed segments that he reviewed well. However, therecipients' feedback events do not affect the content experienced byBill Gates. In another example, the members of a rock band contributesto the same group whereby there are multiple contributors affecting thepreferred content by that group. However, people who subscribe to thatgroup, such as fans, but are not collaborators receive the contentpreferred group's collaborators but the fan's feedback events do notaffect the preference of content delivered to members of the rock bandor other subscribers to the group. In other words, in this type ofgroup, only feedback from the controlling members (e.g. the band membersin the case above) can affect the preference of segments delivered tosubscribers to the group.

8. Users may also select to send content directly to other users ordistribution groups with an action. For example, person A listens to apiece of content and then selects a “forward to” option and thenspecifies an individual, series of individuals, or a group. That file isthen given preference for those users. In the case of buddies andgroups, the users may determine how they want to receive group orbuddies-preferred content. For example (but not limited to) users mayspecify any combination of these following options: a. Prompt me beforeplaying group content; b. Insert group content without prompting me; c.Only play group content that is relevant to what I am listening to now;d. Play group content regardless of what I am listening to now; e. Usersblock or filter group content

9. The user may also choose content based on a mood. For example, in themorning the user could decide to select “light” and would be fed thingslike stand up comedy, sports, light news, etc. In the evening, the usercould decide to selects “serious” and is fed things like news segmentson the war in Iraq or a recent murder. This mood selector may be used inconjunction with or independently from topics or specific keywords. Forexample, a user selects “light” for the mood and “news” for the content.The “mood” selector is user-controlled as described above, and/or it isan automatic feature, whereby the system determines the user's moodautomatically from current or past listening habits and distributecontent K corresponding to that determined mood.

10. Another factor in a user's profile may be preferred acceptablelanguages. When this factor is used, only content in those languages ispreferably selected and delivered to that user. Users can specify asingle language or multiple languages.

So that users do not get fed continually narrowing types of content, thesystem is designed to introduce “disruptive” segments periodically tochallenge the system's assumptions about a user or offer an opportunityfor users to experience information outside their normal interests thatthey never selected on their own. The disruption may be from randomlyselected content and/or from content outside the user's profile that thesystem determines the user likes. How this type of disruption is used istested and is not used for certain users, profile types, or at all if itis not found to be beneficial.

So that users do not receive multiple segments with fundamentallyredundant content from different sources, the system has logic to limitsegments that are too similar to other content already selected for auser. For example, the system may prevent two news segments that talkabout the same event and are too similar to both be delivered to thesame user. However, the system preferably allows two segments that haveenough differences to be fed to the user, such that the segmentscompliment each other rather than overlap extensively. This systememploys any combination of keyword matching, user or administratormonitoring, user feedback, etc. to determine what defines content thatis duplicate (and redundant) and what is similar yet complimentary.

Distribution

Content may be distributed to users via a web interface on a computer(also referred to as a “PC”) (with support for many different operatingsystems) or mobile device (also referred to as “portable device”) or asoftware application running on a PC and/or portable device. Mobiledevices are any combination of hardware or software that are used toreceive and provide for the experience of multimedia content, whichinclude but is not limited to digital media players (e.g. mp3 players,iPods, etc.), cellular phones, telephones, Personal Digital Assistants(PDAs), mobile PCs, satellite receivers, digital radio receivers, orhome cable receivers. Examples of portable devices are a Palm Pilot,Pocket PC, blackberry, MP3 player, proprietary device, cell phone, smartphone, or any other mobile device, which facilitate the playing ofmultimedia content.

Content may also be distributed to third party interfaces. These thirdparty providers may be approved licensees, or the protocols and methodsmay be made public for anyone to design an interface without approvalfrom the network owner.

If a relatively constant connection to the Internet is available tofacilitate streaming audio, the selected audio segments (as determinedby the system) may be streamed to the user based on the matchingdescribed above. Or, if it is more efficient based on the users'computer platform, bandwidth available, and other variable factors,content may be downloaded to the PC or device in the background for playlater. When a connection is available, the device may upload feedbackpreferences (described below). The system may then select content basedon the matching system and return which new segments to download andwhich segments that currently exist on the device are in need ofdeletion. The device then downloads the new segments as long as aconnection is available. If the connection is lost, the process startsover again upon the next connection, or it continues the previousdownload set before requesting a new set. Preferably, this all happensin the background while the user is optionally listening to contentalready on the device or using the device for some other purpose.

The selection system may specify a download location for the file thatis located on the network servers, or an external server. In otherwords, the content does not all have to reside on network servers. Somecontent may reside on independent servers. The application or interfacethen facilitates the downloading of those files from each particularfile's download location.

In the case of a download device, where it operates without directconnection to the network, the device may include logic whereby itfurther refines what segments are more appropriate for that user at thattime based on the available content on the device based on recent userfeedback events. In some cases, a device may need to be connected to aPC in a “hot sync” to upload the feedback events and download thesegments. An example is a device that does not have Wi-Fi or wirelessdata ability.

In a download scenario, segments may be downloaded in specific topicsthat the user has currently requested. In addition, segments may bedownloaded in other areas that the user has shown interest in (or thesystem determines might be of interest) so that if he decides to listento a new content topic, it is available. For example, if a user selects“news” but also shows a preference for (or the system determines hewould be interested in) “business,” “sports,” etc., the system maydownload a certain amount of “news” but also downloads other segments ofinterest so that if he does decide to listen to something new, it isalready on his device. For example, a user may be on an airplane, cutoff from any download ability, and then decides to stop listening tonews and start listening to sports. The user's sports data is alreadyloaded on the device based on his profile. In addition, there is othercontent that the user has not shown a preference for, but the systemdetermines he likes based on similar users. Still other parameters maybe determined to add to the selection method based on customer feedback.

In the case of some portable device or PC, an application or interfacemay select the segments that are played (or the playlist). Depending onthe hardware and software on that device or PC, the application couldplay the content directly or use the device's native or default playingmethod(s) or application(s) to play that file or play list.

In some cases, a device may lack the ability to run a proprietaryapplication on the device to select and/or play segments. In this case,the files may be loaded onto the device as a single playlist, or aseries of play lists may be created to deliver those segments in auseful order. For example, playlists may be uploaded on varioussubjects, such as news, sports, politics, pop culture, technology, WallStreet, etc. Each of these topics has may have its own playlist, whichindicates the respective content in a predetermined order.

In some cases, content could be in multiple playlists because it belongsto different genres or categories of content. For example, a newssegment on Google may be found in both a news play list and a technologyplay list. It is for this reason and others that it is desirable to havea specifically designed interface to select and manage the playing ofsegments, but in order to use the largest installed base of technologythe segments must be able to be used as best as possible on devices orin situations in which a specific application or interface does notexist.

Advertisements are preferably inserted into, or delivered in conjunctionwith, the non-advertising content as a means to generate revenue.Advertisements are delivered to all users or optionally only users ofcertain subscription types. These ads are placed at predeterminedlocations, played at certain time intervals, played between segments orany combination thereof depending on the given situation, user, device,and/or piece of content. Also, for a premium, the end user may choose toreceive content segments without any advertisements.

The system provides several ways to deliver advertisements. One suchmethod is to insert the ads into the multimedia segment files beforebeing downloaded as to be part of the file. Another method is to deliverthe ads as separate multimedia files as part of a user's playlist. Yetanother method is to downloaded the ads as separate files and provide amethod (e.g. software or hardware) that would select from the availableads and play them at appropriate times. The System may also enable amechanism whereby a user is unable to fast-forward through, or skipover, an advertisement and is required to hear or see the entire contentof the ads in order to progress to a subsequent content segment.

The system preferably determines which ads to deliver to users. Ads maybe selected for a particular user based on that user's profile,preferences, demographics, psychographics, age, location, generallistening habits, interests, etc. (Referred to as “Profile Ads”).Additionally, advertisements may be delivered to a user based on thekeywords, topics, author, source, etc. of the multimedia segments beingdelivered (Referred to as “Content Ads”). Additionally, ads may bedelivered based on how much an advertiser is willing to pay relative tocompeting ads. Ads may be matched based on any combination of profile,content, or ad spending. Ads may also be delivered with no matchingwhatsoever (e.g. a brand advertiser who does not care who receives theads). Advertisers may optionally specify criterion for matching, or thesystem may determine which users to match particular ads to.

Companies may want a method to leverage the system to deliver content totheir customers. To facilitate this desire, the system provides topublishers, content providers, licensees, partners, and the generalpublic, applications, interfaces, or other methods (referred to as a“front end”) to deliver desired content to their customers. These frontend methods are designed to deliver all content or at the company'schoosing to only allow certain types of content to be delivered. Forexample, a publisher may provide an interface or application for theircustomers that only allows their content to be played. The publisher mayalso decide to allow their content and other select content to be playedthrough their interface. This allows the companies (e.g. the publisherabove) to leverage the network's back-end technology infrastructure forwhatever content they select. This feature is not restricted to contentproviders. For example, a user may have the ability to create aninterface that only allows a certain type of select content to bedelivered (e.g. a customized channel). Or, the system may allow the usermore control of the content through his interface, acting like a diskjockey manually specifying which segments are played in what order,essentially creating their own online radio station, which draws fromthe collective content available in the archives of the network. Revenueearned from users of a particular front end may be shared with thecreator of that front end.

Users may also be given the ability to request specific content in alinear format, such as a traditional audio book. Linear content may bedelivered as a set of segments strung together continuously. Linearcontent segments may still have the properties of any other networksegment as follows:

1. If a user hears a particular subject that is interesting he couldchoose to break from the linear content and go deeper into that subject,such as by using a “more” feature. The user could also choose to returnat any time to the linear content and pick up where he left off; and

2. Users may have the same feedback methods (as described previously)for linear segments as they would for any other segment.

The system may also be used to facilitate training for schools,institutions, companies, etc. Rather than a company training directorinstructing employees to read a particular book, he instead may instructsubordinates to listen to or watch at least a certain amount of time ona particular subject. The users then get to experience information aboutthat subject most relevant to them. Therefore, each employee has adifferent listening experience based on what he/she was most interestedin. The “course” on that subject is therefore a dynamic contiguous feedof content on a particular subject.

A training director could also choose to specify certain mandatorysegments to be included. The director could assign proprietary segmentsfrom the company, unavailable to the general public, or any segments inthe network that the training director believes are relevant. Thedirector could also choose to select or create a “starting point”segment. That is the first segment, after which content is fed onsimilar topics to that segment's keywords (e.g. sales) based on thesocial matching method.

The content use may be monitored, and the system may measure the amountof time each user spends on each assigned subject. A superior may viewall his users and how long they have listened in select areas. Thesuperior may also view the most popular segments common to the group,allowing him/her to understand what the employees are most interestedin. For example if the subject is “sales,” the superior is able todetermine that the most popular segments were about “Internet salesstrategies.”

The present system also allows users many methods to expand the mediaexperience beyond what they experienced in the network. For example, thesegments a user has listened to may be sent to that user in an emailnewsletter allowing users to review the segments and perhaps read moreinformation related to that content (e.g., with links to appropriatewebsites). Also, this allows users to review content and provideadditional feedback, reviews, etc.

A user will may be given an interface to view segments that he haslistened to or that are downloaded to the device. This may be done on aweb page, application, or an interface on enabled (or capable) devices.At any time, a user may select segments to be listened to or viewedagain. The user may also be given an interface to view his review ofprevious segments and provide additional feedback about those segments.

Feedback Methods

A user may be given several mechanisms to offer feedback on contentsegments and their experience. Some devices or applications vary indegrees of these functions depending on the device or platformlimitations.

The user may be able to rate the content, such as, but not limited to a1-5 scale. Users may be given a hardware or software method to enter thespecific rating value. Or, rating may be done with thumbs up/thumbs downtype input where the input is translated to a numerical value, such asbut not limited to: two thumbs up=5, no input=3 and two thumbs down=1).

If the user selects “next” to skip over a segment that is preferably afeedback event. For example, if the user selected “next” after listeningto a small amount of a file, it is assumed that the user did not likethat segment. If the user listened to a certain amount or certainpercent, the system may determine that they were just ready for the nextcontent and it is not a negative reflection on the content.

Another feedback method is the amount of a segment listened to orwatched. For example, if the user listens all the way through thecontent, that is preferably a feedback event, that is used to indicate apreference for the content. For example, if a user listens to only 5% ofa segment, that may be used to indicate a dislike for that segment.Alternatively, if a user listens to 95% of the segment, that may be usedto indicate a like for that segment.

In addition, if the end user selects more of the same type of content,that may be an indication that the user likes that type of content. Atany time, the end user may select “more,” in which case he is fed moreinformation that is similar or relevant to that segment. Or, the usermay select “more” and then be prompted to select from a list of relevantkeywords selected keywords may then be used to retrieve additionalcontent.

For example, a user hears a segment on great stocks that mentionsMicrosoft and Google; the user selects More>Google and then is fed morecontent specifically about Google. In addition, the user may selectMore> and then multiple keywords of which he wants more informationabout. For example, a segment on Microsoft may have the keywords “BillGates” as a possible More selection. The user may also be given anoption to discontinue a “more” request once they are satisfied. Thesystem is designed to automatically determine how and when to terminate“more” requests, such as to maintain “more” requests for a certainperiod of time and then gradually relax. Or, the user may specify howthey wish to handle a request for “more”.

Yet another method is the Save For Later feature. A user may select“Save for Later” which indicates a preference for that content not todelete it or mark it so that the system can locate and play it at alater date. Preferably, either a full or recent history of all segmentsand the corresponding reviews/feedback are available either directly inthe player interface or on a webpage for review, or access at a laterdate.

“Go linear” is another feature. If a user hears a segment which is partof a series (e.g. 1 of 13), the user may choose to select to hear all 13segments in order, thereby bypassing the dynamic selection methods andlistening to content in an more traditional linear fashion (such as anaudiobook).

Auditory commands are another feedback method One scenario is that auser has a microphone input method and can issue an auditory command forany of the feedback events. In addition, the user may use audio commandsto control other aspects of the media experience, such as for requestingthe content topics to be delivered.

Customer complaints may be used to regulate or monitor the content inthe network. A user may select a “report complaint” option and thenprovide (via text box, menu, categories, voice command, or any othersuitable input method) a complaint about a particular segment, such as:poor quality, in appropriate content, swear words, etc. The network mayinclude a method to use aggregate user complaints to regulate theavailable content in the network automatically or through humanintervention. In addition to the regulatory benefits of allowingcomplaints, complaint events may also function as feedback event,indicating preference. However, in some cases complaint events may notbe used to indicate user's preference for that type of content. Forexample, a user might complain about bad sound quality of a news report.In that case, the complaint is not used to indicate a user's dislike fornews in general, however that particular segment may receive a negativereview.

Advertising feedback is another feature of the system that allows anadvertiser to determine how advertisements performed overall and tospecific types of users. Users are able to provide feedback onadvertisements in the same format as they do content. (discussed furtherin advertising methods below).

Email information can enhance the content by providing the end user moreinformation about a certain segment. One use is if a user wants to knowmore about the author of a segment he may select an “email me more”option and the network may send an email or facilitate an email to besent about that content and the author or source of that content. The“email me more” feature may be used to deliver any type of suitableinformation as may be provided by the segment's author, the networkand/or other users. The email address associated with user's profile maybe used by default, or certain devices may allow for a user to specify adifferent email address to be used. The Email Me More function may beavailable for advertisements as well (discussed more detail in theadvertising methods below).

These feedback methods generate feedback events which are preferablytransmitted to the network. If an active connection is available to thenetwork from the user's device or PC, these feedback events arepreferably sent to the network immediately. If a connection is notavailable, the feedback events may be stored and then uploaded upon nextconnection.

Comments may be used to expand the content experience by making it moreinteractive and collaborative. Users provide comments on contentsegments. These may be like comments on a blog website. For example, ifa scientist listened to a news segment on global warming, he may inputhis comments on that subject. These comments may be additional segmentsin the network, which may be uploaded using any of the methods availableto input content into the network, except that they are preferablyindicated as being tied to a particular predicating segment. Thesecomments may then be delivered in conjunction with the referencedcontent segment. For example, if a user commented on a Presidentialdebate, that segment may be delivered to people who heard thatpresidential debate. In some cases, a user may upload a comment to beplayed before the relevant content segment. Social matching applies tocomments the same way it does to other content so that only commentswhich were deemed relevant to a particular user are delivered to thatuser.

Users may choose to send comments to a particular user or users. Forexample, person A listens to a segment and then inputs a comment of,“hey sally, you are going to love this” and then sends that segment(with comment) to sally.

Users who are collaborators in a group input comments, which may bedelivered to members of that group in conjunction with the relatedcontent segment. For example, Bill Gates makes a comment on a recentnews story about software trend. It sounds like, “This is an interestingnews story. I think the author makes some great points about why to . .. ”. Anyone who subscribes to Bill's group may be fed that commentbefore reviewing the segment that follows

Users may be given options to control how comments are delivered, suchas but not limited to the following: 1. Users select to include or notinclude any comments; 2. Users select to only include comments frompeople in their buddy group or groups they subscribe to; 3. Users selecthow many comments to include for any given segment; Users select typesof comments to include, such as preceding or succeeding comments; Usersselect to be prompted of available comments such that they onlyexperience the ones the user selects to be played.

Advertising

Advertising methods are may be a revenue generator for the contentprovider and the network. Preferably, ads are included periodicallythrough the listening experience (like traditional radio) for all usersor users of certain subscription types. Ads may be between discretesegments and/or within segments. In the case of longer segments, thelocation may be randomly chosen or chosen by the content provider or anetwork administrator.

In order to control ad distribution, advertisers may choose to selectthe number of insertions for any given ad campaign. Or, advertisers maychoose to select the total dollars to be spent for that ad campaign,such that once the ad campaign reached that point (roughly) of totaldollars then the ads stops being inserted. Advertisers set these controlparameters overall, or for a specific time period. For example, anadvertiser may set their ads to run for 1,000 impressions every day or$5,000 a month. These limits may be as large or small as desired by theadvertisers. Advertisers may select specific dates and/or times fortheir ads to run. Advertisers may choose to select certain geographicregions for their ads. Advertisers may choose to select certain profiletypes or to be run proximally located to certain types of content. Theadvertisers may use any and all of these control parameters inconjunction with each other to achieve a desired result. For example, anadvertiser may set an ad to run from 9 to 11 am on Mondays throughFridays to users between age of 30-35, living in Chicago, who arelistening to news content, with a max “spend” of $500 per day and$10,000 per month.

In some cases the cost to run advertisements in the network are set bythe network. In many cases the network provides a bidding (or openmarketplace) method whereby the advertisers set a price they are willingto pay for their target audience. Ads may then be placed based on thebidding prices.

There may be set ad lengths, or the ad lengths may be variable. In thecase of set ad lengths, advertisers may create longer ads by usingmultiple ad insertions for a single ad (e.g. a one minute ad is createdusing two 30 second ad slots).

Advertisers may choose to specify geographic regions to be targeted,such as by city, state, zip, country, etc. or within a certain distancefrom a geographic points. Geographic location may be determined by theaddress associated with a user's profile or by GPS, cellular, or othertriangulation method to determine the actual location of a user.

The network preferably allows advertisers to create ads in differentlanguages that are then matched to users who have that language as anacceptable language in their profile. The system allows for the adlanguage to be different from the language of the content if bothlanguages are allowed for a given user.

An option is available to the advertiser to have ads deliveredsubliminally (i.e. in a way that is not perceptible or minimallyperceptible to the end user). The end user also has the option to allowor prevent subliminal ads. In the case where subliminal ads are alloweda user is provided an interface to view all ads that were deliveredsubliminally or notified in some way when a subliminal ad is running.

In cases where the device or PC is running the network provider softwareor a third party software, which uses the network provider methods, adimpression are preferably tracked once ads are played. Details about thesuccessful delivery of an ad may be uploaded along with the feedbackevents each time the end user connected to the network. Details mayinclude the ad that played, what content it was played with, who theuser was, the time and date of the impression, and any other informationthat is useful in respect to that user or that ad. In the case of aniPod or similar device that does not allow for custom software, theexact advertisement impressions may not be known. In such as instance,the impressions may be extrapolated from the number of downloads or someother use of software to retroactively determine if an ad was played.For example, in the case of an iPod an application or plug-in may beused to scan the iPod database to determine if an ad was played. Theremay be a discount for estimated ad impressions. Users may not able tofast-forward over ads while listening on proprietary software. In thecase of an iPod or similar mobile device, the user is able tofast-forward or skip ads altogether.

Preferably, users are able to give feedback on ads using the samefeedback methods used to provide feedback on content segments. This maybe used to better select ads for that person from the available adstargeting his profile and content. Preferably, network providesadvertisers a method to measure the effectiveness of their ads based onthe user feedback events (discussed in more detail below).

If advertisers desire, users of certain enabled devices may be given a“tell me more” option during an advertisement. If a user selects the“tell me more” option, the network preferably facilitates the deliveryof more information. For example, additional audio or video may beplayed regarding the ad, company, product, and/or service. Or, theadditional information may be delivered through another method of theadvertiser's choosing, such as an email pertaining to that advertisementand offer. This method gives advertisers a highly-valuableimmediate-response method.

There may also be a “buy now” immediate response method in which case auser who selects this option is agreeing to purchase or enroll inwhatever was offered. The user's order, credit card, shipping/billinginfo, etc. are preferably relayed via secure method to the advertiser.Or, the network manages the financial transaction and pays theadvertiser once there is confirmation of the products delivery orshipment, as to protect the user from fraudulent advertisers.

A dynamic ad targeting system may also be part of the system. Forexample, there may be a dynamic ad targeting system whereby anadvertiser does not need to specify the exact target profile or contentin which to deliver the ad. The system may start running the ads broadlyand then target them based on the feedback from different profile andcontent types, selecting the best match for that particular ad. Theadvertiser may set the initial starting point very broad or morespecific. Either way, the dynamic system preferably attempts to maximizethe money spent on the ad by delivering ads to the most responsive userswithin the selected specifics. Ads may be targeted using any combinationof the feedback events, “tell me more” request, “buy now” request, andany other suitable method. The dynamic targeting is an option availableto advertisers for free, or it may be part of a premium advertisersubscription.

Ad monitoring is another optional feature of the system. A method may beprovided for advertisers to monitor and manage the advertisementinsertions and performance. Advertisers may see how their ads performedto various user profiles and content matches (based on feedback events,“tell me more” requests, “buy now” requests, etc., or any combinationthereof). Advertisers may use this information to refine and optimizetheir ads.

Ad research is another optional feature of the system. Advertisers maybe provided with access to the performance of ads of similar products,services, and companies. Companies may use this tool to see how otheroffers, products, and services, were performing in their target market.

A/B split testing is another optional feature of the system. Advertisersmay be given the ability to create different versions of ads wherebytheir best ad runs after a set number of test insertions. Ad versions bythe same advertiser are preferably setup whereby the best ad wins towhichever demographic or profile it performed best to. For example, anadvertiser has two ads for the same service, A and B. Ad A does betterto younger demographics and ad B does better to older set. In that case,both ads may remain active to the areas they outperformed the other butinactive in the areas in which the competitive ad was superior. Theadvertisement audio file may be inserted into the appropriate contentsegment file directly or downloaded/streamed as a separate file asneeded.

Distributed Content Creation Network

One valuable service optionally provided to content creators is theability to convert their print content into audio or audiovisual contentfor delivery via the Network. This may be done efficiently through theNetwork's distributed conversation network with minimal work by theoriginal Content Creator.

A Content creator can input their text content including any supportinginformation, such as Title, Description, Meta Data, Keywords, etc. Thattext content may then be distributed to approve voice or video talents(hereafter “Talent”). The Talent then records the segment via a computeror telephone and the resulting file is stored on the Network servers forediting.

The Talent or another individual (or company) can then log into theonline interface and edit the segment to a quality necessary for thecontent to be published. These “Editors” can be located anywhere in theworld and can edit the content either by downloading the content totheir local editing hardware/software and then uploading the finishedproduct; or they can edit the content directly online via Networksprovided editing web pages.

Once the content is recorded and edited the Content Creator has theability to approve the content or request that changes be made. Once thecontent is satisfactory to the Content Creator the Content Creator willindicate it as being “approved” to be published through the ContentCreator's chosen distribution methods (e.g. podcasts).

The Talent and Editors are preferably compensated per their agreementwith the Network or with the Content Creator. Optionally the ContentCreator can allow the Network to manage the payment by receiving thepayment from the Content Creator and distributing the correct amounts tothe Talent and Editors.

The Talent and Editors may be evaluated by the user community and theContent Creators and those who produce poor quality are removed from thesystem. Content Creators have the ability to select specific Talent fromthe available Talents. Or, the content can be matched to well-reviewedTalents based on the type of content. For example, a Content Creator canselect an option on the Network System to match segments to Talentsbased on the type of content so that Sports content, for example, isrecorded by sports-enthusiasts and other topics are recorded by peoplewho have been well reviewed in that category.

Open Source Training

Training employees, such as sales representatives, is an expensive anddifficult task for medium and large companies. And often the trainingsolutions are general and not specific to particular individuals' tastesand needs. Furthermore, the distribution and management of the trainingis often difficult and costly and it is hard to monitor if they followedthrough and benefited from the training.

The present system improves upon traditional training methods. In thismodel companies create groups of Network Users (hereafter “Users”) whohave similar needs, such as the Sales group, Customer service group,etc. The groups can be as narrow and broad as the company desires.

The company then has the option to prescribe specific content to bedelivered to the Users in those groups or prescribe topics they desirethe groups to experience, or a combination thereof. The specificsegments can be content proprietary to the company, such as a messagefrom the CEO, a training piece, product announcement, etc. Or, they canbe segments from the Networks aggregated content from external sources(external to the company), such as a Wall Street Journal interview witha successful business leader, or a publicly available segment on salestrends.

In the case where the content is topical rather than specific, theNetwork's content selection system may determine the best content foreach group member based on their profile, feedback events, etc., withinthe scope of the prescribed topic. For example, the company may indicatethe topic of “sales”. The members of the group would then each receivesales content but each member would receive a sales segment deemedrelevant to that person based on his or her profile. For example, oneperson may receive a segment on prospecting for clients using theinternet because he has shown interest in internet and new technologies.Another user may receive a segment on negotiating because that is thearea of sales she is most interested.

The company can indicate as many topics and as broadly or narrowlyfocused as desired. Additionally, the company can indicate how much timeeach person should spend experiencing content in the group (e.g. onehour per week). The Network then provides an interface for the companyto review key data about the group, such as which segments and topicsare popular, how much each member is experiencing.

The present system is generally related to a personalized networkproviding a source for digital multimedia, audio, video, audio/visual,such as podcasts, news, sports, comedy, pop-culture, technology, music,and more, delivered to an end user PC or mobile device via the Internet.The system and method using a computer network in which the systemcontent from any content provider, such as a publisher, company, author,advertiser, independent author or user is delivered to individualsinterested in certain multimedia content, such that the contentproviders earn money for the distribution of their content.

Content is preferably aggregated from external sources via the internet,such as RSS feeds, podcasts, audio posts, etc. as well. Additionallycontent may be inputted directly into the system by the contentproviders. Content is delivered to end users within the United States orany foreign country.

The network provider utilizing the present invention createsautomatically or manually a valid combination of alpha, numeric, orother characters to select a unique valid personalized UserID andpassword that identifies the end user on the system.

The user provides information about himself, such as demographics,likes, dislikes, etc. They system uses this information to create aprofile for this user.

Multimedia content is preferably selected from internal and externalcontent available based on the users' profile, preferences, and specificrequests. Additionally the user may be compared to similar users todetermine multimedia content to deliver to the user. The selectedcontent is preferably delivered to the user's computer or mobile devicevia streaming or downloading. The user can experience content fromcertain sources for free with periodic advertisements or the user canselect a subscription to access additional premium content, which wouldalso have periodic advertisements. However, the user could also choose amore expensive subscription which allowed access to the free and premiumcontent but without any advertisements. This user would then have accessto network content from any enabled computer, application, or device byentering his user ID and password.

If a constant connection to the Internet is available to facilitatestreaming audio, the best audio segments (as determined by the systemfor this user) are streamed to the user based on the user's currentlistening requests and best socially matched content. If a constantconnection is not available, content is downloaded to the device in thebackground for play later.

One method is when a connection is available, the device uploads theuser preferences and feedback events (described below), the system thendetermines the best content based on the social matching system (asdescribed in more detail above) and returns which new segments todownload and which segments that currently exist on the device aredeleted. The device may then download those segments as long as aconnection is available. If the connection is lost, the processpreferably starts over again upon the next connection, or it continuesthe previous download set before requesting a new set. This all happensin the background while the user is listening to content already on thedevice or using the device for some other purpose.

In the case of a download device, where it operates without directconnection to the network, the device includes logic whereby it furtherrefines what segments are most appropriate for that user at that timebased on the available content on the device based on recent userfeedback events.

In some cases a “hot sync” with a computer or other hardware is used toupload the feedback events and download the segments. An example is adevice that does not have Wi-Fi or wireless data ability and uses aconnection to a computer to connect to facilitate a connection to thenetwork.

One factor in a user's profile is preferred acceptable languages. Onlycontent in those languages is then selected and delivered to that user.Users specify a single language or multiple languages.

Turning now to the figures, the present system is most readily realizedin a network communications system. A high level block diagram of anexemplary network communications system 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1.The illustrated system 100 includes one or more client devices 102, oneor more wireless routers 104, one or more media servers 106, and one ormore database servers 108 connected to one or more databases 110. Eachof these devices may communicate with each other via a connection to oneor more communications channels 116. The communications channels 116 maybe any suitable communications channels 116 such as the Internet, cable,satellite, local area network, wide area networks, telephone networks,etc. It will be appreciated that any of the devices described herein maybe directly connected to each other and/or connected over one or morenetworks.

In an example mode of operation, users 118 of the system 100 consume oneor more media files received from the media server 106. The media filesmay be any suitable type of media file such as an audio file, a videofile, and/or a multimedia file. The media files preferably includeadvertising content and non-advertising content.

One media server 106 may interact with a large number of client devices102. Accordingly, each media server 106 is typically a high endcomputing device with a large storage capacity, one or more fastmicroprocessors, and one or more high speed network connections.Conversely, relative to a typical media server 106, each client device102 typically includes less storage capacity, less processing power, anda slower network connection.

A detailed block diagram of an example computing device 102, 104, 106,108 is illustrated in FIG. 2. Each computing device 102, 104, 106, 108may include a server, a personal computer (PC), a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a portable audio player, a portable audio/video player,a mobile telephone, a television remote control and/or any othersuitable computing device. Each computing device 102, 104, 106, 108preferably includes a main unit 202 which preferably includes one ormore processors 204 electrically coupled by an address/data bus 206 toone or more memory devices 208, other computer circuitry 210, and one ormore interface circuits 212. The processor 204 may be any suitablemicroprocessor.

The memory 208 preferably includes volatile memory and non-volatilememory. Preferably, the memory 208 and/or another storage device 218stores software instructions that interact with the other devices in thesystem 100 as described herein. These software instructions may beexecuted by the processor 204 in any suitable manner. The memory 208and/or another storage device 218 may also store one or more datastructures, digital data indicative of documents, files, programs, webpages, etc. retrieved from another computing device 102, 104, 106, 108and/or loaded via an input device 214.

The interface circuit 212 may be implemented using any suitableinterface standard, such as an Ethernet interface and/or a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) interface. One or more input devices 214 may beconnected to the interface circuit 212 for entering data and commandsinto the main unit 202. For example, the input device 214 may be akeyboard, mouse, touch screen, track pad, track ball, isopoint, and/or avoice recognition system.

One or more displays, printers, speakers, and/or other output devices216 may also be connected to the main unit 202 via the interface circuit212. The display 216 may be a cathode ray tube (CRTs), liquid crystaldisplays (LCDs), or any other type of display. The display 216 generatesvisual displays of data generated during operation of the computingdevice 102, 104, 106, 108. For example, the display 216 may be used todisplay web pages received from the media server 106. The visualdisplays may include prompts for human input, run time statistics,calculated values, data, etc.

One or more storage devices 218 may also be connected to the main unit202 via the interface circuit 212. For example, a hard drive, CD drive,DVD drive, flash memory drive, and/or other storage devices may beconnected to the main unit 202. The storage devices 218 may store anytype of data used by the computing device 102, 104, 106, 108.

Each computing device 102, 104, 106, 108 may also exchange data withother computing devices 102, 104, 106, 108 and/or other network devices220 via a connection to the communication channel(s) 116. Thecommunication channel(s) 116 may be any type of network connection, suchas an Ethernet connection, WiFi, WiMax, digital subscriber line (DSL),telephone line, coaxial cable, etc. Users of the system 100 may berequired to register with the media server 106. In such an instance,each user may choose a user identifier (e.g., e-mail address) and apassword which may be required for the activation of services. The useridentifier and password may be passed across the communicationchannel(s) 116 using encryption built into the user's browser, softwareapplication, or device. Alternatively, the user identifier and/orpassword may be assigned by the media server 106.

A flowchart of an example process 300 for delivering content to a mediaplayer is presented in FIG. 3. Preferably, the process 300 is embodiedin one or more software programs which is stored in one or more memoriesand executed by one or more processors. Although the process 300 isdescribed with reference to the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 3, it willbe appreciated that many other methods of performing the acts associatedwith process 300 may be used. For example, the order of many of thesteps may be changed, and some of the steps described may be optional.

Advertising content 305 and Non-Advertising content 310 are collected(shown by box 315). Examples of advertising content (also referred to as“ad content”) could include a promotion for a new line of Dell Computersor an advertisement for Fast Boats brand of boats. Advertisements can behave varying durations as desired by the advertiser. In the example ofFIG. 3, Dell computers has chosen to create a 5 second ad and Fast Boatshas decided to create a longer 30 second advertisement.

Examples of non-advertising content (also referred to as “non-adcontent”) could include text articles, such as a news story from NYTimes, a segment from CNN TV, or a video interview with an expert onboating.

Various segments of ad and non-ad content, represented by 305 and 310respectively, are collected 315 through various methods which couldinclude an advertiser, advertising agency, publisher, or content owneruploading digital copies of the content to an Internet website. It couldalso be collected by a software application often called a “web crawler”or “spider” which searches Internet websites for desirable forms of adand non-ad content and then downloads those segments.

Once the segments are collected, details about the content are stored—aprocess often called “indexing” and is represented by box 317. Thecollection of data about the segments can be referred to as Profile Dataand could include information about the specific segment such as mediafile length, size, duration, title, topics, description, keywords, etc.Additionally Profile Data can include related information about thecontent, such as what types of users like or dislike the content or howmany people have experienced the content. For example, an ad contentsegment profile might indicate that it is 30 seconds in length, on thetopics of boats and boating. Additionally, the profile data mightindicate that 75% of users interested in boating experienced at least90% of the full advertisement duration before skipping to the nextsegment and 50% of users interested in cars skipped over theadvertisement after listening to only 10%. The profile data mightfurther interpret these results to indicate that this advertisementshould be delivered to users who are interested in boating but shouldnot be delivered to users who are interested in cars.

Similarly, users and user groups may have Profile Data associated withthem, such as their likes and dislikes, which in conjunction with the adand non-ad content profile data help determine what content should bedelivered to a particular user or group. For example, if a user hasrequested news content, watched boat shows, skipped over content aboutcars, and watched advertisements about boat companies, that user'sprofile data might indicate a preference for content on news and boats.Further, the user's profile may include a dislike for content aboutcars, and the user's profile may indicate a preference foradvertisements related to boating, and specifically advertisements aboutboat companies.

Once the Profile Data for the ad and non-ad content is assembled, thosesegments are preferably available to be delivered to users. Box 320represents an example selection of an appropriate subset of non-adcontent based on the profile data about the available content and theprofile data about a particular user. For example, in addition to news,politics, and other topics, a user's history demonstrates that hewatches an average of 75% of the duration of content segments relatingto boating. The system may infer that the user likes content on boating.Consequently, the subset of non-ad content selected for the user by thesystem may include at least one available boating non-ad contentsegment, such as an interview with a boating expert.

In addition to the subset of non-ad content selected for a given user,box 325 demonstrates that a subset of ad content may also be selectedfor the user based on the user profile and ad content profiles so thatthe most appropriate advertisement is delivered which will have a goodchance of being liked, and therefore not skipped, by the user. Forexample, if a user has skipped over ads about cars, but on average haslistened to at least 50% of the respective durations of ad content aboutboats, and the community of users with similar boating desires who havealso skipped over the car ads has listened to on average 25 seconds ofthe full 30 seconds of the Fast Boats brand boat ad, the system mayinfer that the Fast Boats ad would be more appropriate for thisparticular user. Therefore, the subset of ad content delivered to thisuser would likely include the Fast Boats brand ad content.

The ad and non-ad content may then delivered to the user, as indicatedby box 330. Delivery may include the downloading of the ad and non-adcontent to a user's media player, such as computer, mp3 player, iPod,cell phone, or PDA. The content may be delivered as separate digitalmedia files for each ad and non-ad segment respectively. Or, thedelivery may include the merging of certain ad and non-ad content intosingle files. For example, the Fast Boats advertisement may be mergedonto the end of the boating expert content segment so that if a usertransfers the non-ad content segment to a media player, the ad contentwill be included automatically.

As indicated by box 335, as the user experiences part or all of the adand non-ad content, the duration of experience relative to each contentsegment is stored as part of the user's profile and the profile of therespective content segment. For example, if the user experienced 20% ofthe Fast Boats advertisement, that experience data may be stored as partof the Fast Boats profile as well as the user's profile.

Further, as indicated by box 340, the advertiser may be charged based onthe level of user interaction (also referred to as “User InteractionCharge”) with the advertisement. For example, if an advertiser is to pay$1.00 for all users who experience 100% of an advertisement, theadvertiser may be charged a lesser amount (e.g. $0.20) for users whoexperienced 20% of the advertisement and then skipped on to the nextcontent segment.

As indicated by box 345, the content providers may also be“commissioned” for non-ad content experienced by the user proximal to adcontent experienced by the user which generated a “user interactioncharge.” For example, if a user's session included 9 minutes of the boatexpert segment followed by 1 minute of a News segment and during thatsame session a User Interaction Charge of $0.20 is generated, the boatadvertiser may receive 9/10ths or 90% of the available commission earnedon the User Interaction Charge because 9 minutes of the user's total 10minutes (or 90%) was from the boat expert interview segment.

The Service 400 preferably collects ad and non-ad content from varioussources and stores them in various Data Stores 461 (a process oftenreferred to as “aggregating”). Content could be aggregated from ExternalSources as shown by box 401, such as a website, blog, podcast, etc.These external sources may be accessed via a network or Internet 410. Inthe case of content sources being located on the Internet, an InternetCrawler 420 may be used to find them. FIG. 4 shows two content segmentsfound by the Internet Crawler 420, specifically an NPR Podcast 405 and aGoogle advertisement 408. In this example, the Crawler 420 downloads therespective content to the Content Stores 461 of the Service 400.

Additionally Content Owners 430 and Advertisement Creators 440 mayupload or otherwise input content and advertisements respectively intothe Data Stores 461 of the Service 400. Examples of Content Ownersinclude publishers such as NY Times and CNN as well as content creatorsand authors, such as Steven King. In the example of FIG. 4, the ContentOwner CNN has uploaded a content segment called CNN's Today's News 406.

Examples of Advertisement Creators include any person, company orinstitution who wants to input an advertisement into the Service 400,such as Dell Computers or Leo Burnett Ad Agency. In this example DellComputer company has uploaded an advertisement 407 to the Service 400.

The Ad and Non-ad content may then be stored in the Data Stores 461 ofthe Service 400. A Profile is preferably created for each piece ofcontent as part of the Data Stores 461. These Profiles may include suchthings as length, title, topics, keywords, as well as how well they areliked or disliked by the user community. The Data Stores 461 may furtherstore Profile Data on the various users who use the Service 400, such aswhat types of content they like and dislike, what types of ads they likeand dislike, what groups they are part of, who they share content with,what content types and subjects were requested by the user, etc.

The Content Selection System 460 may then use (as shown by line 462) theProfile Data stored in the Data Stores 461 to select ad and non-adcontent for the users of the service 400.

In FIG. 4, the Content Selection System 460 has selected three segments475, 476, and 477 to deliver to user 491 as part of user experiencesession 474. A user experience session may consist of all the contentthat a user experiences over a given period of time. In the example ofFIG. 4, this user only has time to listen to three segments. If the userhad time to listen to more, they may be part of the same contentexperience session or a different content experience session.

The three segments selected for user 491 are an NPR podcast episode 475,a Dell Computer ad 476, and a CNN's Today's News episode 477. Each ofthese episodes was selected for user 491 by the Content Selection System460 from the available ad and non-ad content in the Data Stores 461based on the user's 491 profile and the profiles of the content in theData Stores, which includes the profiles of the three selected segments475, 476, and 477. For example, the NPR Podcast episode 475 and CNN'sToday's News segment 477 may have been selected because the user hasspecifically requested news content and further has shown preference forliberal news content. Therefore content in the Data Stores 461 is notselected which has corresponding profile data in the Data Stores 461 andfor which the corresponding profile data indicates that the content ismore conservative than user 491 prefers, per the user's 491 profiledata.

The content segments of content experience session 474 can be deliveredto user 491 via a network or Internet 410, as shown by line 465. Thecontent segments can further be delivered to the user's 491 computer 480and/or the user's 491 mobile player 481, such as iPod, PDA, Cell phone,or other mobile device capable of playing the content segments 475, 476,and 477.

Some devices may be incapable of playing some types of content segments.For example, if content segment 475 is audio format and content segment477 is video format and the user's 491 player 481 is not capable ofplaying video content, the Content Selection System 460 may only deliverthe capable segments to that device. However, a device, such as thecomputer 480, which is capable of playing more media formats, wouldreceive both audio and video formats.

Further, if the mobile player 481 may not be equipped for directconnection to the network or internet 410, it may download (or “sync”)content from another network-enabled device such as the computer 480 asrepresented by dashed line 495.

As user 491 partially or fully experiences the delivered contentsegments 475, 476, and 477, the data about the respective experiences(e.g. how much of the content was experienced, was the segment skipped,what order the segments were experienced in, etc.) is preferablyuploaded to the Service 400 via a network or internet 410 as shown bylines 499. If a media player is not capable of connecting to the Service400 via a network or internet 410, the media player can transmit theexperience data to a capable device, such as a computer 480, asindicated by dashed line 495, whereby the computer may then upload theexperience data to the Service 400. The experience data may then bestored by the Service 400 in the Data Stores 461 and used by the ContentSelection System 460 for future content experience sessions for user 491as well as other users whereby the experience (e.g. likes and dislikes)is helpful in selecting content for other users.

FIG. 5 illustrates how five users 510-514 could interact with theService 400, including how their respective preferences and thecollective preferences of other users for ad and non-ad content mayaffect what content is delivered to each user.

In this example, user 510 has received and experienced a series of adand non-ad content segments, collectively 540, from the Service 400. Thefirst segment experienced is a non-ad segment Car Show 1 (550) followedby a Toyota ad 560, which the user experiences 42 seconds (or 70%) ofthe full duration of the advertisement. Subsequently, the userexperiences a non-ad CNN segment 551 followed by Mercedes ad 561, whichthe user experienced for 60 seconds which was the full duration of thead content. The experienced durations of each segment is then sent backto the Service 400, shown by line 520 a. Relevant experience data is maythen be stored in the User Profile Store 501, Content Profile Store 502,and Ad Profile Store 503 as appropriate. For example, the user's 510Profile may be updated to reflect that he experienced Car Show 1 (550)and CNN 1 (551) and therefore may like similar content in the future.

Additionally, the durations of the ad content 560, 561 experienced maybe stored in the Ad Profile Store 503 so that the Service 400 canproperly determine how much to charge the respective advertisers for adimpressions 561 and 560 and help the Service 400 determine which ads todeliver to other users.

For example, this data may be stored in the Ad Profile Store 503 thatpeople who like content like Car Show 1 (550) and content from CNN (551)may also like car ads because both ad 560 and 561 were car ads and theuser 510 experienced the majority of those ads. Additionally this datamay be stored in the Ad Profile Store that users who like an ad fromToyota may also like ads from Mercedes.

In this example, user 511 has received and experienced content segmentsin dashed box 541 which includes Car Show 1 (550), a BMW ad (562 a) andCar Show 2 (552). User 511 experienced 9 seconds (or 90%) of the BMW ad,represented by 562 a. The Profile data for each ad and non-ad contentmay then be sent to the Service 400, as shown via line 520 c.

In this example, user 512 also receives the same BMW ad as user 511 anduser 512 experienced 8 seconds (or 80%) of the BMW ad, represented by562 b. Additionally, user 512 receives and experiences a series ofcontent segments within the same experience session, denoted by dashedbox 542. The content segments received by user 512 are an NPR segment(553), Car Show 1 (550), and CNN 1 (551). As shown, Car Show 1 (550) isalso one of the content segments experienced by user 511. The experiencedata may then be sent to the Service 400 via line 520 d. The UserProfile data may include data that user 512 and user 511 have liked thesame Car-related content, Car Show 1 (550), and both users have alsoliked the same advertisement for BMW, BMW ad 1 (562 b), as indicatedbecause both listened to most of the advertisement. The assumption thatusers who like Car-related content also like the BMW ad may be stored inthe Advertising Profile Store 503. Further, the assumption that userswho liked the BMW ad also liked the specific Car-related episode, CarShow 1 (550) may be stored in the Advertising Profile Store 503. TheAdvertising Profile Store data can then be used to select ads for otherusers.

In this example, user 513 also receives the BMW ad 1 as part of thecontent experience session denoted by dashed box 543, however, unlikeusers 511 and 512, user 513 did not like BMW ad 1 as indicated by adcontent box 562 c in which user 513 is shown to have only experienced 1second (or 10%) of the BMW ad. Additionally, during that same contentexperience session 543, user 513 also receives and experiences threenews segment, NPR 1 (553), NPR 2 (554), and CNN 1 (551). Additionally,user 513 is delivered a McDonald's advertisement of which he experienced10 seconds (or 100%) of the advertisement, as indicated by advertisingcontent box 563.

Preferably, this experience data is then sent to the Service 400 asindicated by line 520 b, which may include the specific likes anddislikes of user 513 as well as data relevant to the experiencedadvertising and non-advertising content of session 543. For example,since user 513 liked content from NPR as well as CNN, the User ProfileStore 501 may reflect this user's preference for news content. And, theContent Profile Store 502 may be updated to indicate that users who likeNPR may also like content from CNN. The user's dislike for the BMWadvertisement may be stored in the User Profile Store 501 as well aspossibly in the Advertisement Profile Store 503 indicating thatconsumers of news content may not like ads related to cars orspecifically ads related to BMW cars. This assumption may then beverified with additional user experiences. Additionally, the Ad ProfileStore 503 may indicate that user 513 liked the McDonald's ad 563 andtherefore may like additional ads about McDonald's and/or similar ads,such as ads related to other food and beverage companies. The Ad ProfileStore 503 may also be updated to indicate that consumers of news contentmay like ads for McDonalds and may also like similar ads.

The Content Selection System 460 of the Service 400 then leverages thedata available to it in the various Stores, such as the shown UserProfile Store 501, Content Profile Store 502, and Advertisement ProfileStore 503 to determine what ad and non-ad content to deliver to theusers of the Service 400. Once the content is selected for a given userit is delivered to the user via a wired or wireless network, such as theInternet, as shown by box 504. Lines 530 a, 530 b, and 530 c indicatethe delivery of content to users 510, 514, and 513 respectively.

In this example, the Content Selection System 460 has determined thatuser 510 is interested in news content and has therefore deliveredsegments: NY Times 1 (555), NPR 2 (554), and CNN 2 (556). As indicatedabove, because user 510 has shown a preference for Car-related content(e.g. 550) and Car-related advertisements, specifically Toyota Ad 1(560) and Mercedes ad 1 (561), the Content Selection System 460 haschosen a car-related advertisement, specifically BMW ad 1 (562 d)because this particular ad had done well with users who liked carcontent, such as user 511 as well as users who liked car and newscontent, such as user 512. If user 510 had not shown a previous interestin car-related content as shown in experience session box 540, theContent Selection System 460, may have determined that like user 513,user 510 should not receive the BMW ad because it was not liked by user513 who also likes news content similar to that of user 510. Therefore,it can be seen how the Content Selection System 460 of the Service 400can leverage the previous experiences of content and advertisements ofthe particular user and other similar users to determine a good mix ofnew ad and non-ad content.

User 514 receives two Car-related content segments, Car Show 2 (522) andCar Show 3 (557), as well as a news segment, CNN 1 (551) as part ofcontent experience session 544. The Content Selection System 460 hasfurther selected the BMW ad 1 advertisement 562 e because similar users511 and 512 had previously demonstrated a preference for car ads andspecifically the BMW ad 1 advertisement.

User 513, having previously experienced news content during contentexperience session 543 is subsequently delivered more news content,namely, two news segments, NPR 3 (557) and CNN 2 (556) as part ofcontent experience session 543 b. Because user 513 had shown a previouspreference for a McDonald's ad (563), the Content Selection System 460has selected a similar advertisement in the food-related industry,namely a Starbucks Coffee company advertisement Starbucks Ad 1 (564).

Once users 510, 514, and 513 experience the ad and non-ad contentdelivered in content experience sessions 540 b, 544, and 543 brespectively, the results of their experiences (e.g. likes, dislikes,partial and full experiences, etc.) are preferably sent to the Service400 and stored in the relevant data stores. This new experience data mayfurther improve the data available to the Content Selection System 460to select content for users 510, 514, and 513, as well as the rest ofthe users of the Service 400.

FIG. 6 includes an example content experience session of user 610 whichdemonstrates one method for charging advertisers based on the level ofuser interaction with their respective advertisements. Additionally,FIG. 6 demonstrates how content owners may be paid commissions from theadvertising income.

User 610 has a content experience session comprised of non-ad contentsegments 611-619 and advertising segments 620-625. For each ad segment620-625 the user 610 has interacted with the advertisement to somedegree. In some cases the advertisers may be charged for ad impressionsregardless of user interaction. However, for this example the userinteraction must be of a sufficient nature to result in the advertiserbeing charged for the advertisement impression. The resulting charge tothe advertiser for such user action is called the User Action Charge.

The first advertisement received by user 610 is ad segment 620. The userlistens to 3% of ad 620 and then skips on to the next segment in theexperience session. For this example, experiencing 3% of the fullduration of an advertisement does not trigger a User Action Charge asindicated by dashed line 660 and box 670.

The next ad to be experienced by user 610 is ad 621. User 610experiences 30 seconds of ad 621 which, although it may or may notcomprise the full duration of ad 621, is sufficient to trigger UserAction Charge 671 as indicated by dashed line 661.

The user 610 then experiences ad 622, of which he experiences 30% of thefull duration. Additionally, during ad 621, the user is provided a“learn more” option. User 610 selects the learn more option, such as byclicking on a hyperlink (shown by line 630) to visit a related website635 which displays additional information about the product advertisedin ad segment 622. The user having experienced 30% of ad segment 622 andalso selecting the learn more option 635 has collectively triggered theUser Action Charge 672 as indicated by line 662. Although user 610 onlyexperienced 30% of the full duration of advertisement 622, because healso selected the learn more option 635, the advertiser of ad segment622 may be required to pay a premium amount for the collective UserAction.

The user 610 later experiences advertisement 623. User 610 experiencesonly 3% of advertisement 623 but he also selects a “buy now” option asillustrated by line 640 in which the user is taken to an orderinginterface 645 where the user 610 can immediately place an order for theproduct advertised in ad segment 623. Although as indicated earlier inthis example, 3% is not sufficient to result in a User Action Charge.However, because the user selected the buy now option 645, theadvertiser is charged for the User Action. However, in this case theadvertiser of ad segment 623 has set up an advertising Campaign suchthat the buy now option 645 triggers a subsequent advertisement later inthe user's 610 experience session, or subsequent experience session. Inthis example, the subsequent ad segment 624 is delivered because of thebuy now option, as indicated by dashed line 650. The user 610 thenexperiences 10% of ad segment 624. The advertiser of ad segments 623 and624 is then charged User Action Charge 673 which reflects the 3%experience of ad segment 623, the buy now action 645, and follow up adinsertion 624. It is likely that the User Action Charge would reflect apremium for the follow up advertisement segment 624 because the user 610is a “qualified” individual as indicated by his “buy now” action 645.

The final ad experienced by user 610 during this example contentexperience session is ad segment 625, of which user 610 experiences thefull duration of the advertisement 625. Per the owner of advertisement625, the complete experience of ad 625 results (shown by dashed line695) in a follow up advertisement 698 on a web page 696 which the user610 later visits. For example, if the user 610 visits a website (asindicated by line 697) to manage his content subscriptions, the onlineadvertisement 698 would be displayed on one of the website managementweb pages 696, possibly as a banner advertisement. The owner of adsegment 625 and online ad banner 698 is consequently charged User ActionCharge 674 which reflects the full experience of ad 625 (as shown bydashed line 665) and the additional charges (as indicated by dashed line666) for running of the banner advertisement 698 on the web page 696.

In this example, the Content Owners of the non-ad content segments611-619 receive commissions on the advertising income from the relatedadvertisements. In some cases the content owners may be paid onadvertisements proximally located to the content segment, such as if anad comes within a predetermined number of minutes before or after thecontent segment. In this example, the content providers are paid (asindicated by line 601) a portion of the total ad revenue resulting fromthe collective User Action Charges 671, 672, 673, and 674. Thecollective commissions paid is represented by box 602.

One available method for determining how much of the total availablecommissions 602 each content provider receives is to pay the contentproviders based on what portion of the total non-ad content segments theuser experienced during a single user experience session. In thisexample, the user experienced 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 1, 5, 6, and 2 minutes ofthe non-ad content segments 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618, and619 respectively. Consequently the total amount of non-ad contentexperienced by user 610 during this example content experience sessionis 40 minutes. The content owners of segments 611, 612, 613, 614, 615,616, 617, 618, and 619 would receive the following portions of the totalavailable commissions respectively; 1/40, 3/40, 5/40, 7/40, 10/40, 1/40,5/40, 6/40, and 2/40.

FIG. 7 demonstrates how a group can be created for users to sharecontent with each other and/or the user community. In the example ofFIG. 7, a group 705 has been created so that users can share contentwith each other. For example, if two users both like content about carracing, they can create a group to share their favorite car racingsegments with each other and other users in the user community who areinterested in similar content.

Group 705 is shown to include two contributing members denoted by dashedFIGS. 711 and 712 and several non-contributing members 713 and 715.Collectively users 711, 712, 713, and 715 make up the current members ofthe group.

The contributing members are members who can directly control orpassively effect the content delivered to the members of the group.Contributing member 711 is shown to be actively contributing contentsegment 721 to the Group Data Store 701 via line 731. For example, ifmember 711 liked a particular segment, content source, or topic onracing he can take an action, such as clicking an “add to group”hyperlink on a webpage, to add (shown by line 731) the desired content721 to the group 705. The relationship between the group 705 and the newcontent 721 may be stored in the Group Data Store 701 which is a datastore which stores data related to each group in the Service 400.Additional related information may be stored in the Content ProfileStore 502 indicated by dashed line 702.

Contributing members can also contribute content segments to the Groupthrough passive means, such as by experiencing a duration of contentthat would indicate that the content is good enough to be contributed tothe group. For example, if a contributing member experienced 100% of acontent segment on the topic of a particular group, the Service 400 mayautomatically store that segment as part of the group content, per thedesires of group's contributing members. In this example, contributingmember 712 of group 705 is shown to have experienced 75% of contentsegment 722 which based on the settings of group 905 is determined topassively contribute content segment 722 to the Group Store 701 viadashed line 732.

Groups can also consist of non-contributing members who have activelyjoined the group by taking some deliberate action (e.g., by clicking ona hyperlink on a web page), or the Service 400 can assign members togroups which the Service 400 determines would be beneficial to theusers' experience. In FIG. 7, non-contributing member 713 has activelyjoined the group 705. Additionally non-contributing member 715 is a userwhich the Service 400 has assigned to this group as a way of deliveringdesirable content to user 715. For example, if user 715 has shown apreference for car and boat content, user 715 may be passively joined toone of the available boat groups as well as to the car group 705.

The Content Selection System 460, which selects ad and non-ad content tobe delivered to the various uses of the Service 400, may select contentbased on the User Profile Store 501, Content Profile Store 502, and AdProfile Store 503, as well as group data from the Group Store 701. Inthis example the Content Selection System 460 selects content for users713, 712, and 715 shown by lines 765, 766, and 767 respectively. Part ofthe content experience sessions are indicated by blocks 780, 781, and782 for users 713, 712, and 715 respectively.

Non-contributing member 713 is shown to receive content segments 721 and722 which were submitted to the group by contributing members 711 and712 respectively as indicated previously. Additionally, based on theuser's 713 user profile and the content profiles available, non-adcontent 723 and ad content 771 are also selected to be delivered to user713 by the Content Selection System 460 of the Service 400.

Contributing member 712 is shown to receive content segment 721 whichwas submitted to the group by contributing member 711. User 712 was thecontributing member of content segment 722 of which he had alreadyexperienced and therefore he is not delivered that segment. Additionallybased on the user's 712 user profile and ad and non-ad content profilesavailable, non-ad content 724 and 723 and ad content 772 are alsoselected to be delivered to user 713 by the Content Selection System 460of the Service 400.

Non-contributing member 715 is shown to receive content segment 722which was submitted to the group by contributing member 712. However,based on the user's 715 profile the Content Selection System 460determines that content segment 721 of the group's 705 content is notappropriate to be delivered to user 715, and therefore content segment721 is not selected by the system. Additionally based on the user's 715user profile and ad and non-ad content profiles available, non-adcontent 725 and 726 and ad content 773 are selected to be delivered touser 715 by the Content Selection System 460 of the Service 400.

In summary, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciatethat methods and apparatus for sending content to a media player havebeen provided. The foregoing description has been presented for thepurposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the exemplary embodimentsdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light ofthe above teachings. It is intended that the scope of the invention belimited not by this detailed description of examples, but rather by theclaims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of sending content to a media player,the method comprising: receiving a plurality of non-advertising content;determining selected non-advertising content from the plurality ofnon-advertising content; receiving a plurality of advertising content,each advertising content from the plurality of advertising contenthaving a duration; for each advertising content from the plurality ofadvertising content, determining partial experiences of the duration ofthe advertising content consumed by a plurality of media consumers;determining selected advertising content from the plurality ofadvertising content for a media consumer based on (a) first profile dataassociated with the media consumer, (b) second profile data associatedwith the selected non-advertising content, and (c) third profile dataassociated with the selected advertising content, and (d) statisticaldata associated with the selected advertising content, the statisticaldata being indicative of the partial experiences of the duration of theselected advertising content consumed by the plurality of mediaconsumers; associating the selected advertising content with theselected non-advertising content in at least one media file; and sendingthe at least one media file to the media player associated with themedia consumer.